Read all about it: Olga Davidoff's Wedding.
The setting: the highly sophisticated society of Tobolsk, where "Samoyeds" and foie gras appear in the space of a single sentence. And where charming, civilized Buryats sweep well-bred young ladies off their feet, only to entangle them in dark webs of Siberian savagery! I feel my bosom trembling in its corset as I type!
During a long Google Books troll for anything that might possibly add to my dissertation, I found this little Orientalist gem, courtesy of the Belgravia Annual. This issue came out in 1884, at Christmas. What says Christmas more than a wildly wacky fantasy trip to a Buryat "castle" where banditry is the name of the game? This very creative version of Buryat culture naturally says more about the author and the author's culture than its subjects.
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